Les Bowen

STAFF WRITER

Les Bowen has covered the Eagles since 2002. Before that, he covered the Flyers for 13 years. He came to the Daily News from the Charlotte Observer in May 1983, just as the Sixers were winning the NBA championship. He thought, "Gosh, this sort of thing must happen all the time here."

There must be some sort of hot-tub time machine in the training room down at NovaCare.

A day after issuing a statement that didn't sound much like it was written by him, Michael Vick appeared on the "Mike and Mike in the Morning" ESPN radio show Tuesday to talk about how happy he is to get a reworked deal from the Eagles, one that makes him the likely 2013 starter.

Clearly, Vick thinks Kelly's offense will involve him running the ball a lot, even though every time he is asked about it, Kelly goes to great pains to explain that isn't at all what the read-option is about.

"In 2006 I ran for 1,000 yards -- and it wasn't hard," Vick said. "The only thing you have to do is train. I feel like I can still do that. To what level, I don't know, but I feel like I can do it at a high level."

Poll

Who are you giving up on for Lent?

Chip Kelly -- Davis and Vick seem like bad calls to me.

The Flyers -- Does that ‘C’ on Giroux’s jersey stand for "cursed?"

The Sixers -- I gave up on them for Halloween.

The 2006 Falcons went 7-9 with Vick running for 1,039 yards, by the way. That was the only season in which Vick has played 16 games.

Even if Vick running a lot somehow were to be regarded as a positive offensive development, as we all know, he turns 33 in June and was getting chased down from behind by defensive linemen in 2012, leaving aside the six games he missed with a concussion. But Vick, who has missed 13 games in three years as the Eagles' starter, doesn't see injury as any more of an obstacle than aging. His thought process hasn't changed a bit.

"You have to be very cautious and meticulous about what you're doing on the field, but not to the point where it takes away from your game. Once you start trying not to get hurt, that's when you get hurt," Vick said. "I think what I have to do is just go out and play lights-out football, and not worry about getting hurt. I think over the last two years, I was trying to protect myself, trying to be sure that I was out on the football field with my teammates, just putting too much effort into not being injured. When you do that, it slows you down just half a second. I think when you're able to just go out and say, 'today I'm going to give it everything I've got' and leave it all out on the field, that's when you have the most success."

Vick alluded to "a whole array of things that brought me back."

Toward the end of last season, Phillymag.com's Tim McManus asked Vick about Chip Kelly, and Vick replied, "you mean the Notre Dame coach?" On "Mike and Mike," though, Vick said: "I've watched (Kelly's offense) for a long time. And I've watched Oregon have success. I know that doesn't mean it's going to correlate directly to the NFL. I just felt change was good, and I'm going to take my chances."

Vick said he is "motivated to be one of the elite quarterbacks in the league again" but "it won't happen overnight."

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